Scott Hill

Excellent examples and clear explanations. 12/22/2003

This book is exactly what I was looking for, an extension of Books Online with extra clear examples and explanations. Books Online is often still my first reference because it is convenient and does an excellent job. But when I need a second source for more information I now turn to Transact-SQL Desk Reference. If I still don't find what I need then I have to go to user groups or other external sources, but so far that has only happened once.

The tutorial in the first chapter is a nice overview for those who need it, but an advanced user can skip past it and go straight to the reference material starting in Chapter 2. The index is excellent and so far has never failed to put me in the right place to find what I want. I particularly like the extra examples of how to use different features. And the explanation of how to do disk layout to help restorability and performance is well beyond what I expected in a reference book. I plan to use the layout presented as a starting point for configuring my production database.

It could be argued that the syntax definitions taken from Books Online could be omitted, though in some cases the book has a better explanation of some of the items. All in all, it is definitely worth the price.

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